Although this denomination is not completely correct from the historical point of view, it is also known as Merindad de Ultrapuertos ("the regions beyond the mountain passes") by the southerners, and Deça-ports ("this side of the mountain passes") by the Gascon-speakers. Despite its lost administrative cohesion, the memory of its past heyday has left an imprint on its inhabitants, who keep identifying themselves as Lower Navarrese and therefore Navarrese. The Nafarroaren Eguna or Day of Navarre is a festival held in Baigorri every year to strengthen their bonds and celebrate their Basque identity as one of the seven constituent regions of the Basque Country.
Geography
Lower Navarre is a collection of valleys in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The Aldudes valley, around the town of Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry in the south of Lower Navarre, preserves many old traditions, with houses of pink sandstone and contests of Force Basque, the basque traditional strength sports. The Irouléguy wines are produced in the area around the town of Irouléguy.
Landscape in the vicinity of Irouleguy, in Lower Navarre, June 2009
The river Nive rises in Lower Navarre and flows through the province and on to Bayonne, where it meets the Adour. Beyond Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port itself, the Nive enters the Ossès valley, with many beautiful old houses with carved lintels in the villages of Ossès, Irissarry and Bidarray. A reserve for the pottok, the wild Basque Pyrenean pony, in the valley conserves this rare breed. The Baigura massif towers over the western valleys and sets a natural boundary with the rolling valleys of Labourd.
North of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is the Mixe region around the town of Saint-Palais, a former Navarrese capital. Although close to Béarn, Basque influence and traditions are strong. Lower Navarrese is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the region. Just south of Saint-Palais, the three principal routes to Compostela on the Way of St James met at the hamlet of Ostabat, bringing much wealth and trade to the area in medieval times.
The Way of St James headed south from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port towards the mountain pass above Orreaga. Pilgrims travelled across the Cize region of Lower Navarre on their way to Navarre across the mountains. In these rolling hills, ewes' milk cheese, pur brebis, is commonly made, including Ossau-Iraty cheese. Villages like Estérençuby and Lecumberry are popular for agro-tourism and the Iratibeech forest on the frontier borderline is known for its views and history. Dolmens and other neolithic monuments dot the landscape, including the Tour d'Urkulu high in the mountains at 1,149m—a 2,000-year-old circular platform of huge stone blocks. Lower Navarre is well delimited by mountain ranges on the west (with Mount Iparla as its highest and most iconic landmark), south (Orreaga, Mount Urkulu and Pyrenees altogether) and the east (bounded by the western mountains of Zuberoa).
History
The lands of the Lower Navarre were part of the Duchy of Vasconia that turned into Gascony by the end of the first millennium. At the time of King Sancho III of NavarreThe Great (died in 1035), Duke Sancho VI William of Gascony pledged allegiance to the Navarrese king, for a short period Gascony becoming vassal to the Kingdom of Navarre, with which it had always had close ties. Moreover, the valleys of Baigorri, Ossès, Cize and Arberoa were attached to the latter, establishing the first nucleus of the Navarrese grip on the lands north of the Pyrenees. While these valleys were taken over again by Gascony for a period, the Ultrapuertos County (called Merindad in Navarre) was regained for Navarre in 1234, coming to be governed by the sheriff of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. However, the definite boundaries were not established until the 1244-1245 war between the Labourdins and Navarrese came to an end.
In 1512, the Duke of Alba, under orders from King Ferdinand II of Aragon, conquered Navarre, including Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The Navarrese monarchs retreated to their sovereign domain of Béarn. In 1516, King John III of Navarre retook the town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, but failed to take the citadel; he and Queen Catherine died soon after, and the 10,000 mercenary army of the spanish Emperor Charles V recovered control of the town. Charles V's troops retained Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and its hinterland, besides devastating the region, but were met with strong resistance led by local lords loyal to King Henry II of Navarre. The latter succeeded in taking over the town and its castle in May 1521, losing it to the Duke of Alba in June; the spanish evacuated Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in 1522, but recovered it in January 1524. While possession of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was hotly contested, Saint-Palais (Donapaleu in Basque) remained out of spanish reach and would become the main royal center of the surviving Navarrese monarchy in Lower Navarre.
Eventually, the legitimate Navarrese king (de facto deprived of the rest of Navarre by Aragon-Castilian usurpation), restored Navarrese official institutions and bodies in Lower Navarre, e.g. the Sovereign Council in 1523, the Chancery in 1524, the Royal Mint a little later in Saint-Palais, etc. In 1525, a new military inroad led by the spanish viceroy of Navarre subdued the region, and tried to earn the loyalty of the nobles, but they unanimously kept their allegiance to the Navarrese monarchs of the House of Albret, and the lord of Luxa and the lord of Miossens, Esteban d'Albret, reconquered the region in 1527. Although Emperor Charles V, the spanish monarch, recovered Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port within months, by 1528 he had lost interest in asserting and maintaining his control over the portion of Navarre north of the Pyrenees, difficult to hold and defend. Accordingly, he abandoned his remaining holdings in Lower Navarre, including Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, to its hereditary king Henry II, as part of a treaty with France—the Treaty of Cambray in 1530. In 1555, Henry II of Navarre died and was succeeded by his daughter Jeanne, who ruled until her death in 1572.
During the 16th century the Albrets ruled over a wider territory (Béarn, etc. as French vassals) and the effective seat of the Navarrese Royalty shifted to Pau, capital city of Béarn, where Henry III (later Henry IV of France), the son of Jeanne d'Albret was born. Henry III generally respected the laws issued by the Navarrese parliament, despite sometimes raising objections to their wordings. Henry succeeded to the French throne in 1589; he and his successors would now be titled "King of France and Navarre." His son Louis II (Louis XIII of France) was definitely reluctant to any binding reading of the Navarrese laws, and forced more loose wordings, devoid of specific meaning in order to feel his hands free. Ultimately this led to an encroaching French centralization of all relevant decisions and prerogatives during the 17 and 18th centuries.
In 1620 and 1624 respectively the House of Commons and the Justice system were merged with those of Béarn and transferred from Saint-Palais to Pau, despite protests voiced by the Navarrese representatives, who pointed to their different traditions and languages—Basque and Béarnese. The title of King of Navarre continued to be held by the lineage of the Albrets and the Bourbons up to the French Revolution, while the kingdom itself merged with France in 1620. It retained its historic personality as a kingdom and, albeit fragmented, a separate legal status. The two third estate representatives of Lower Navarre did not vote at the States-General of 1789 and its follow-up, the French National Assembly (1790), arguing that the impending new administrative arrangement was none of their business, since they did not belong in the Kingdom of France.[1] All the same, the new French administrative design did not spare Lower Navarre. It came to be integrated in the Basses-Pyrénées department along with the rest of French Basque districts, and Béarn.
The administration of the independent Kingdom of Navarre after 1512 was centralized in Saint-Palais and consisted of a handful of institutions organized in a structure generally found in the Kingdom of France.[2] By 1527 these administrations had been partially decentralized to Pau, and consisted of:
Navarre, officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France. The capital city is Pamplona. The present-day province makes up the majority of the territory of the medieval Kingdom of Navarre, a long-standing Pyrenean kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, with its northernmost part, Lower Navarre, located in the southwest corner of France.
Pyrénées-Atlantiques is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlantic Ocean, it covers the French Basque Country and the Béarn. Its prefecture is Pau. In 2019, it had a population of 682,621.
Labourd is a former French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées Atlantiques département of Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It is one of the traditional Basque provinces, and identified as one of the territorial component parts of the Basque Country by many, especially by the Basque nationalists.
The Kingdom of Navarre, originally the Kingdom of Pamplona occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, with its northernmost areas originally reaching the Atlantic Ocean, between present-day Spain and France.
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in Southwestern France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre and Labourd, the Principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms the current Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. The capitals of Béarn were successively Beneharnum, Morlaàs, Orthez and then Pau.
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It is close to Ostabat in the Pyrenean foothills. The town is also the old capital of the traditional Basque province of Lower Navarre. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is also a starting point for the French Way Camino Francés, the most popular option for travelling the Camino de Santiago. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France Association.
Ossès is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.
John III was jure uxoris King of Navarre from 1484 until his death, as husband and co-ruler of Queen Catherine.
Blanche II was the titular Queen of Navarre between 1461 and 1464. She was the daughter of John II of Aragon and Blanche I of Navarre. She was also Princess of Asturias by marriage to Henry of Castile.
Francis Phoebus was King of Navarre (1479–1483), Viscount of Bearn, and Count of Foix (1472). He was the son of Gaston, Prince of Viana, and grandson of Queen Eleanor, whom he succeeded. She recommended him to ally with France.
Catherine was Queen of Navarre from 1483 until 1517. She was also Duchess of Gandia, Montblanc, and Peñafiel, Countess of Foix, Bigorre, and Ribagorza, and Viscountess of Béarn.
Ainhice-Mongelos is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France.
Amendeuix-Oneix is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France.
Anhaux is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France. It is part of the former province of Lower Navarre.
The viscounts of Béarn were the rulers of the viscounty of Béarn, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms the current département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64).
The Viscounty, later Principalityof Béarn, was a medieval lordship in the far south of France, part of the Duchy of Gascony from the late ninth century. In 1347, the viscount declared Béarn an independent principality without feudal obligations. It later entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Navarre in 1479 and with France in 1589. In 1620, the prince formally incorporated Béarn as a province of France.
The Spanish conquest of the Iberian part of Navarre was initiated by Ferdinand II of Aragon and completed by his grandson and successor Charles V in a series of military campaigns lasting from 1512 to 1524. Ferdinand was both the king of Aragon and regent of Castile in 1512. When Pope Julius II declared a Holy League against France in late 1511, Navarre attempted to remain neutral. Ferdinand used this as an excuse to attack Navarre, conquering it while its potential protector, France, was beset by England, Venice, and Ferdinand's own Italian armies.
Pedro de Navarra was a nobleman in Navarre and its highest military authority as Marshal of Navarre during the kingdom's last years of independence, as well as the following tumultuous period.
The Estates of Navarre(French: États de Navarre, États généraux de Navarre, Cortes de Navarre) were created in 1317 under Philip II. The Estates of Lower Navarre(French: États de Basse-Navarre, Cortes de la Basse-Navarre) were first called into session on 28 August 1523 by Henry II after the definitive loss of Upper Navarre,
References
Cadier, Léon (1888). "Les archives d'Aragon et de Navarre"[The Archivesof [the Kingdoms of] Aragon and Navarre.](image/text/pdf). Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes (in French). 49 (6). Paris/Genève: Librairie Droz: 47–90. doi:10.3406/bec.1888.447523. Retrieved 22 April 2016– via Persee.
Esarte Muniain, Pedro (2001). Navarra, 1512-1530: Conquista, ocupación y sometimiento militar, civil y eclesiástico[Navarra, 1512-1530: conquest, occupation and military, civil and ecclesiastical enslavement.] (in Spanish). Pamplona-Iruña: Pamiela argitaletxea. ISBN978-8-4768-1825-1.
Lafourcade, Prof. Maité (2003). Eusko Ikaskuntza; Société d'études basques (Saint-Sébastien, Spain) (eds.). "Les assemblées provinciales du Pays Basque Français sous l'Ancien Régime"[The provincial assemblies of the French Basque Country in the Ancient Regime.](PDF). Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos = Revue Internationale des Études Basques (in French). No.48. Paris: Euskomedia Fundazioa. pp.589–619. ISSN0212-7016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
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